FAQ for online submission

How do I register to submit a film online?

We need you to fill out a few details before you submit a film. However, you only need to fill out these details once even if you are submitting more than one film (up to a maximum of two).

Visit our registration page to register.

I've registered: how do I log in?

When you register, you will be sent an email containing your login information. If you have not received this email within an hour of registering, please check that the email sent to you hasn't been put in your Spam quarantine folder (if you have one), or that other filters (e.g. Hotmail's) haven't prevented the email from being delivered. If necessary, re-register and make sure you type in your email address correctly.

Your registration email will contain two pieces of information: first, the address of your login web page that you should click (or copy-paste into your web browser), and secondly a code that you should type into this web page.

I've registered, but lost my registration email

Simply go to the login reminder page to be emailed your login/password again. If you have forgotten which email address you used to register, simply complete the registration process again.

Can I upload more than one film?

Once you've registered, you can submit up to two films for judging. However, you can only upload one film at once.

What's the deadline for submissions?

The deadline is 5pm UK time on 8th September 2008. If your film is still uploading at this time, we may still include it (at our discretion), but all accounts will be disabled at 5pm so you won't be able to start an upload after that time.

What are the rules of DepicT! ?

Please see our rules page.

What web browsers are compatible with the online submission system?

We have tried to make sure that the widest variety of browsers will work. We have tested on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, IE5 Mac and Opera, and all of them work. There are caveats however: the progress bar doesn't work properly in IE5 Mac and older versions of Opera, Safari tends to slow down or crash when handling large files, and Opera will tend to claim the upload has "Stopped" when in fact the upload was successful. If you have the choice, we would recommend Firefox as the most reliable browser to use.

The upload system does require cookies (for login purposes) and javascript to be enabled. If for some reason you cannot enable javascript or you are having other problems with the web-based submission system, we also provide an FTP server to which you can upload your film. See the FTP FAQ below for more details.

If you want to check that your film has uploaded successfully, just click the "View your submissions" menu item to make sure you film appears there.

What file type/compression formats/codecs do you support?

Your film can be in any of the wide range of formats listed on our acceptable formats page.

We recommend your film should be about 320x240 pixels - after all, that's one of the sizes that shortlisted films will appear as on the main DepicT! site.

What size should my file be?

The video & sound quality of your submission does not need to be perfect (we will ask you for a better copy if your film is shortlisted), it should just be good enough for us to judge it.

We recommend that your film not be over 100MB - we expect most films will be under 20MB! Of course, some fast-paced, intricately detailed films may need to be less compressed (and hence be larger on disk) in order that enough detail is preserved for us to judge it. However, we will not accept entries over 150MB.

What should I call the file I'm uploading?

Your file should be no more than 100 characters long, with no spaces (use underscores or hyphens instead), and it should have a 3 or 4 letter extension, e.g. .mov or .mpeg.

My upload stopped half way through - what should I do?

Half complete uploads, either via the web interface or FTP, will not be submitted to the judges for consideration. Just go through the upload process again (and if your web browser crashes again, use a different one!).

You can check what you have officially submitted by clicking the "View my submissions" link that appears in the left hand menu when you're logged in.

I submitted a film, but have changed my mind.

Once you've uploaded a film, that's it - there's no way for you to delete it from our system. However, if you email support@depict.org giving your reasons for wishing to withdraw your film, we will delete it from our servers and not consider it for the shortlist.

Can I upload my film via FTP?

We do offer an FTP server, although most people will find it easier to use the web interface - we recommend FTP only as a last resort. If you do choose to upload via FTP, please read the rest of this FAQ carefully.

When you click on the "upload a film" link, you will be given the option of uploading via FTP instead. If you choose this, you will be asked to give the title of your film, and then given details of an FTP account to which to upload it.

The FTP accounts we give out to film makers to upload their films are "use once" accounts: that is, as soon as you upload a file, that file will be taken as your entry and the account will no longer work. However, if you deliberately halt the upload, or your internet connection fails during the upload, don't worry: the FTP server knows the difference between a fully uploaded file and a partially uploaded one, and a partially uploaded file will not be presented to the judges as your entry. However, you will still need to get hold of a new FTP account before you can have another go at uploading.

If you want to make sure an entry has uploaded properly and been accepted, you can click the "View my entries" link that appears in the left hand menu when you're logged in.

We cannot offer you help with using an FTP client: however, if you need one and don't have one, download.com is a good place to find cheap/free software, including FTP clients. Don't, however, use CuteFTP (see below).

I keep getting errors when uploading with FTP

Almost all FTP clients work fine with our server (we've tested them). A few don't. If you're using CuteFTP, stop using it right now - it's one of the worst FTP clients we've ever encountered. It doesn't follow proper FTP specifications, and hence won't work in a wide variety of situations - including uploading to our server.

I need help!

If you're having problems using the online submission system and your query is not answered above, please contact support@depict.org giving all the details you can about the problem.

Please note, this is just for help using the online submission system. For all other DepicT! enquiries, please contact depict@watershed.co.uk.